Update: Lake Oswego :)

It has been quite a while since my last post.  Life has been very busy!  We are finally happily settled into our new home here in Lake Oswego, and we are very very blessed.  My dad is loving his new job, and it has been a huge blessing to our family, as they have welcomed us with open arms.  My mom is busy homeschooling Max, and they are both loving the community here as there are many amazing homeschooling families that we have come to know!  Sydney is loving playing volleyball, and is still growing and is more than a head taller than me (I am 2 1/2 years older), so she likes to tease me about that, but hey short is good!  I have made some truly amazing friends and have been extremely blessed by their friendship.  I just turned 16 last week which is sort of surreal.  I grew up dreaming of being 16, and now that its here I am very excited to see what the Lord has in store for me this year.  Thank you to everyone who has covered our family in prayer as moving to a completely different state has its many challenges.  It snowed a few weeks ago which was amazing because Max got to go sledding right in our backyard, which is not something we did in Arizona haha! :)  Anyways, I just wanted to give a quick update, and I hope everyone has a great week!

We are here!

Writing this post in our rental, and so thankful that we are here safely!  We are almost completely unpacked, and everyone has their own room, which is great!  We ate dinner last night at this cute restaurant right on the lake, and got some homemade Ice Cream from this little stand that we found in the heart of the small downtown area.  This morning we were able to wake up to an amazing green view, with the lake peeking through the trees, so pretty!  We got to visit hopefully our new home church River West this morning, and we felt very at home, as we immediately felt welcome there.  We are very excited for next week when we get to go to Younglife Malibu in British Columbia and serve the MIlitary families from Washington, with River West.  Thank you everyone for the prayers, as we also are still searching for our little missing Kitty (Read last post).  Oh, and I forgot to mention the weather.  AMAZING.  Not to sunny, but we do see the sun every once in a while throughout the day, but the temperature is a cool 71 degrees, so we are excited at the fact that it is definitely sweater weather for our family, as we have grown accustomed to the oven, also known as Phoenix.  Well that is it for today, but we are definitely loving LO!!

- Maddie

The Long Road...

Well the last 36 hours since I updated last have been both rough, and wonderful.  We got to our hotel in Central California on Thursday night, and as many of you know we are traveling with our cats.  We are heartbroken to say that one of our cats got freaked out and ran away.  We looked for almost 6 hours, before putting up "lost cat" sighns  at the hotel, and letting all of the staff and guests know.  We left yesterday morning, praying for some way that we could find him.  As we were driving down the road, praying, we passed a sign that said trust Jesus.  As much as that was so hard to loose our sweet Sugar, that is all we can do, and the fact that we can rest in him for comfort is all we will ever need.  We drove for about 9 hours yesterday, before crossing the border at around 6:30, and taking our first Oregon family picture on the side of the highway.  Today is a day that we have all been waiting for.  We are about 4 hours out from Lake Oswego, and could not be more excited, as our 26 hour drive is coming to an end, we are so thankful for our safety as well.  I will update with all of the pictures hopefully tonight.  Please keep my family in your prayers today, and tonight on our final stretch.

-Maddie

On the road!

A quick update:

As of this morning, we are on the road!  We finished up packing last night around midnight, and had lots of people come and help load the trailer, which was extremely helpful!  We have the truck, with a U-Haul in tow, as well as my dads car.  I have lots of pictures to upload from both Saturday night and other things, so I will hopefully have those up by Saturday when we get there.  We have only been gone for a few short hours, and we are already getting texts, wall posts, and emails from people.  It goes to show how loved our family is, and it means a lot.  I have mostly just been answering the standard questions, but I haven't really talked about how we are dealing with the move emotionally.  Being able to live in a comfortable home is already a luxury compared to many parts of the world, but getting to move to a new exciting place is overwhelming.  We loved our home, our friends, and our church and schools, so I think that is going to be the hardest part.  The aspect of getting to start over is awesome though, the feeling of something new, is going to be amazing.  We have gotten so many "going-away" gifts, and I have to tell you, some of our favorite gifts were the rain gear, simply because it's funny to think we are going from dry heat 360 days of the year, to having rainy days as often as the sun shines in Arizona.  I'm laughing as I'm writing this, because it's me, my mom, Sydney, and the 3 cats in our big car.  I don't know how the girls ended up with the cats, but all I know is that dad and max are probably enjoying the fact that they don't have to stop basically every 30 minuets to scoop cat litter...  Haha!  So anyways, our plan is to pull into Lake Oswego, by Saturday, and get settled in the rental house.  Next week is filled with school shopping, touring, signing papers and auditions for choir at Lakeridge High.   And getting ready to head up to British Columbia on the 24th for camp (read my last post).  We are  so excited to explore the town, so be looking for pictures on FB.  Thank you everyone for prayers!  I will update tomorrow with the pictures.

- Maddie

Quick Update...

It has been a bittersweet last few days.  As we are saying our final goodbyes, we are reminded what a blessing that living in Arizona has been.  Saturday night we were overwhelmed with joy and love, as more than 200 people came to our home to send us off.  Then tonight, was our gathering of our family fellowship that has been a second family to us over the years.  This group of 9 families, has blessed us in more ways than we could ever imagine.  Looking back at how this last month has shaped an amazing testimony for our family, is overwhelming.  As we get ready to head out on our new adventure on Thursday, we are so excited to see what this new chapter holds, but at the same time saddened that our old memories are coming to a close.  As far as packing... we are almost there!  We are very happy to have found a house to rent in LO for a short period so the transition will hopefully be smooth.  We will get in town just in time to go school shopping (Hooray!) and then my mom is taking Max and Sydney and I up to British Colombia to serve at a Young life Camp for Military families with our new church River West.  It will be a great opportunity to meet new friends before the school year.  Thursday should be interesting as we are heading out with 2 cars filled with 5 people, 3 cats, and more suitcases than we can count, a U-Haul filled with boxes, and memories of things and people that we will never forget, we are very excited, and praising the Lord each step of the way.

- Maddie

Lake Oswego...

Just recently my family has received the opportunity to move to Lake Oswego, Oregon.  So many people have asked to stay in touch, and I just thought it would be easier to have it all in one place, so I started a blog for those who want to keep in touch.  This new opportunity for my family has been a huge blessing.  We are overwhelmed with the amount of support and love coming from family in friends, it has been amazing.  There are hundreds of questions people have been asking, so I will do my best to catch up with them :).  First of all, my dad has joined a company called Building Champions, and has accepted the opportunity to take the position as a business coach.  We are really letting the Lord lead us where he wants us, and right now that is Oregon, but that doesn't mean we couldn't possibly move back to Scottsdale in the future.  That being said we are renting our home for a year, to one of our good friends.  School for Me, Max and Sydney will start after Labor Day, and go through the middle of June.  Now, for many of you who have known my family, you know that we have chosen MANY different schools over the years.  As of now, I am in the process of choosing which High School I will go to.  I have a choice between 2 amazing public schools that my parents have toured and really loved both.  I have not made my final decision yet, as I want to go and tour them both myself and get a good feel for the sense of community in each campus.  Sydney and Max, also have the choices for 2 really great schools, and also have the opportunity to homeschool again as well, so we will really see where the Lord leads us when we get there.  As of now our family is aiming to move somewhere between Aug. 10 - 14, depending on what we need to do to move.  I am personally excited for this move, because earlier this year I went on an SCA Missions trip to Portland, which is about 10 miles from Lake Oswego, so I am very excited to be able to go back and continue my missional work in the City of Portland, and to be able to show my family as well.  Thank you everyone for the prayers and support, and we will keep you all updated as we can!  (:

- Maddie